VIII. After this they allowed the king's property to be plundered, and
destroyed the palace. Tarquinius had obtained the pleasantest part of
the Field of Mars, and had consecrated it to that god. This field had
just been cut, and the corn lay on the ground, for the people thought
that they must not thresh it or make any use of it, because of the
ground being consecrated, so they took the sheaves and threw them into
the river. In the same way they cut down the trees and threw them in,
leaving the whole place for the god, but uncultivated and unfruitful.
As there were many things of different sorts all floating together in
the river, the current did not carry them far, but when the first masses
settled on a shallow place, the rest which were carried down upon them
could not get past, but became heaped up there, and the stream compacted
them securely by the mud which it deposited upon them, not only
increasing the size of the whole mass, but firmly cementing it together.
The waves did not shake it, but gently beat it into a solid consistency.
Now, from its size, it began to receive additions, as most of what the
river brought down settled upon it. It is now a sacred island close by
the city, with temples and walks, and in the Latin tongue it has a name
which means "between two bridges." Some state that this did not happen
when Tarquinia's field was consecrated, but in later times when
Tarquinia gave up another field next to that one, for the public use.
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